Dalkowski110
10-21-2008, 11:17 AM
I really, REALLY doubt we've had a thread like this, so I figured I'd create one. The basic premise is what odd/unique things do (or did in the case of deaceased) players when they sign their signatures? I don't mean "is their signature weird?" because it can be, yet it can still lack peculiarities (although in cases of the excessively bizarre, i.e. Elvis Andrus, I guess you can add it here). Furthermore, because more than one guy will add a certain inscription via TTM, unless it's something unique/the player does it all the time and few if any other players do, then inscriptions (including religious inscriptions) usually do not count (an exception would be Sandy Consuegra, who always signed "Sincerely," even in-person). Oh, and there's way more guys that just sign their initials than you might think. Anyway, onto the list. I've alphebetized it to make it a little easier.
-Tim Alderson. Peculiarity: Usually signs "t. A." replete with small "t" and capital "A."
-Jesus Alou. Peculiarity: Signs the letter "J" either under his first name or upside-down, then writes "esus." As a religious Roman Catholic, I can tell you this is not a religious thing/how one spells "Jesus"; I really have no clue as to why he does it.
-Sandy Amoros. Peculiarity: Almost always dated his signatures, even in-person.
-Matt Anderson. Peculiarity: Signs as "M.J. Anderson" (given name is "Matthew Jason Anderson") as well as his jersey number.
-Elvis Andrus. Peculiarity: Signs with a bunch of horizontal and vertical lines.
-Danys Baez. Peculiarity: Signs his last name, then his first initial and (sometimes) number.
-Eric Beattie. Peculiarity: Signs his name as "E. Beattie," replete with the period.
-Cool Papa Bell. Peculiarity (baseball cards only): Would correct any historical errors on the back of the card.
-Wally Bunker. Peculiarity: His signature is nothing more than a squiggle. Seriously. If you have one, look at it. Not one letter is even remotely decipherable.
-Lew Burdette. Peculiarity: Always signed his name as "Lou." ESPN's Rob Neyer noted this and has started calling him "Lou Burdette."
-Ambiorix Burgos. Peculiarity: He signs his name as "A. Burgos," replete with period, just like Eric Beattie.
-Fausto Carmona. Peculiarity: Usually signs his name "Fausto C."
-Luis Castillo. Peculiarity: See "Ambiorix Burgos." He too just writes in his first initial, replete with a period after it.
-Loyd Christopher. Peculiarity: See "Lew Burdette." Signed his name with one "L." What's so odd about that, you ask? His given name was "Lloyd." However, all his contracts and stuff were signed with just one "L," hence why he's called "Loyd Christopher."
-Sandy Consuegra. Peculiarity: Inscribed literally every flat item he signed with "Sincerely."
-Jimmie Crutchfield. Peculiarity: He signed everything "Col. Jimmie Crutchfield," correctly giving the military abbreviation of his nickname, "The Colonel." He'd also sometimes affix "Col." to his name on baseball cards.
-Johnny Cueto. Peculiarity: Signs as "Jonny Cueto." Early on, he merely signed as "Jonny."
-Leon Day. Pecularity: If asked to inscribe something aside from personalizations, he'd merely add "Negro Leagues."
-Jorge de la Rosa. Peculiarity: Signs his first name as "Jo." Take a look at anything you have signed by him.
-Don Demeter. Peculiarity: Okay, so this one is related to how his signature looks, but take a look at any autograph you have of him and compare the "D's" in "Don" and "Demeter" to the rest of his name and they're five or six times larger with the rest of the name written inside or under the D's.
-Rick Ferrell. Peculiarity: Underlined part or all of his signature.
-Wes Ferrell. Peculiarity: See "Rick Ferrell."
-Todd Frazier. Peculiarity: Signs either "Todd B. Frazier" or "T.B. Frazier."
-Yoandy Garlobo. Peculiarity: Signs his name as "YGR" in block print with his jersey number.
-Dwight Gooden. Peculiarity: Randomly alternates between "Dwight" and "Doc" as his first name.
-Lee Grissom. Peculiarity: Signed "Lefty Lee Grissom" with no quotes around "Lefty."
-C.J. Henry. Peculiarity: Signs his autograph as "CJH."
-Adrian Hernandez. Peculiarity: Generally signs just his nickname, "el Duquecito" or merely "Duquecito."
-Orlando Hernandez. Aside from "O. Hernandez #26" in the style that Omar Linares seemingly popularized, he adds "Duke." Not "Duque." "Duke."
-Brad Holt. Peculiarity: At least early on, he added "32nd Overall" to everything he signed.
-J.P. Howell. Peculiarity: Often merely signs his last name, "Howell."
-Skeeter Kell. Peculiarity: Signs out "Everett 'Skeeter' Kell."
-Bobby Keppel. Peculiarity: Signs his name "B. Keppel."
-Kevin Kouzmanoff. Peculiarity: Often merely signs his nickname, "Kouz." Sometimes he'll sign "K. Kouz."
-Pedro Luis Lazo. Peculiarity: As of late has dated his signatures.
-Bill Lee. Peculiarity: It varies. You'll always get "Earth, 2008" (or whenever he signed it), but sometimes you'll also get "Bill 'Spaceman' Lee," "Yankees Suck," "Red Sox Rule," or just random stuff that he happened to think up when you asked for a personalization. That's what makes him fun TTM.
-Allan Lewis. Peculiarity: Signed a little squiggle before his name. I can't for the life of me figure out why.
-Gene Lillard. Peculiarity: Calligraphy was Gene Lillard's hobby, and he'd go out of his way to make his signature look almost like John Hancock's on the Declaration of Independence.
-Omar Linares. Peculiarity: Not so much a peculiarity as a trend-setter. Linares would generally sign his first initial, his name, and then his number. Because of his tremendous popularity, a lot of Cuban ballplayers that grew up watching him copied this.
-Ad Liska. Peculiarity: On everything I've seen signed of him, he signs at least his full name, Adolph James Liska. Sometimes he'd add his career in short (list of teams he played with and in what years), too.
-Alexander Malleta. Peculiarity: Has two distinct signatures. Sometimes he'll print his name as "Alexander Malleta." However, when he signs his name as a signature, it's always as "A. Mayeta."
-Mike G. Marshall. Peculiarity: Without exception signs as "Dr. Mike Marshall."
-Amaury Marti. Peculiarity: Though his name has changed literally half a dozen times, his signature hasn't. It's still "Amaury Casaņas."
-Harold Martinez. Peculiarity: Often merely signs the letter "M."
-Verdell Mathis. Peculiarity: Signed his name "Verdell Lefty Mathis" with no quotes around "Lefty."
-Sam McDowell. Peculiarity: Signs his name "Sam Mc Dowell" with a space between "Mc" and "Dowell."
-Tug McGraw. Pecularity: On most of his card-certified autographs, he added a smiley face.
-Victor Mesa. Peculiarity: Signs "Cuba" or "Villa Clara" depending on what photo he's signing.
-Wonderful Terrific Monds. Peculiarity: Never signs his full name. Usually either "Wonderful Monds" or sometimes "Wonderful T. Monds."
-Toe Nash. Peculiarity: Signs "Greg 'Toe' Nash," despite the fact that I don't think anyone in baseball ever called him Greg (though it is his given name).
-Pat Neshek. Peculiarity: The baseball seams in the letter "P," which is really cool.
-Adrian Nieto. Peculiarity: Starts his signature off with a little star or asterisk or something. Your guess is as good as mine as to why.
-Rey Ordonez. Peculiarity: Similar to Danys Baez in that he writes his last name, then sticks his first initial at the end.
-Juan Padilla (the pitcher, not the Cuban second baseman). Peculiarity: Signs his name weird and flattened out. Easily in the running for "top three weirdest-looking signatures of all time" with Elvis Andrus and Wally Bunker.
-Ike Pearson. Peculiarity: Often signed in quill pen. I guess he liked either calligraphy or pens.
-Double Duty Radcliffe. Peculiarity: Perhaps as a reflection of his nickname, he often signed both the front and back of a baseball card.
-Ricardo Rincon. Peculiarity: Prints "Ricardo," (albeit with a fancy "R") then goes to cursive for "Rincon."
-Pete Rose, Jr. Peculiarity: Signs as "Pete Rose II."
-Earl Snyder. Peculiarity: The first and last letters of his first and last name are capitalized. Basically "EarL SnydeR."
-Oscar Tejeda. Peculiarity: Signs "Oscar" in cursive, then prints "Tejeda."
-Ludovicus Van Mil. Peculiarity: Signs as "Loek van Mil." "Loek" is his nickname.
-Chien-Ming Wang. Peculiarity: Alternates almost at random between signing in Chinese and English.
-Casey Weathers. Peculiarity: It could just be his handwriting, but I swear it looks like he's writing "Cy Weathers."
-Turk Wendell. Peculiarity: Can't speak to it now, but he added whatever team he was playing with at the time under his signature, no matter what the card or flat he signed portrayed him with. In other words, say you had a card of him with the Cubs while he was playing on the Mets; he'd add "Mets." He also sometimes signed both sides of the card in TTM requests.
I'd love to hear any additions!
-Tim Alderson. Peculiarity: Usually signs "t. A." replete with small "t" and capital "A."
-Jesus Alou. Peculiarity: Signs the letter "J" either under his first name or upside-down, then writes "esus." As a religious Roman Catholic, I can tell you this is not a religious thing/how one spells "Jesus"; I really have no clue as to why he does it.
-Sandy Amoros. Peculiarity: Almost always dated his signatures, even in-person.
-Matt Anderson. Peculiarity: Signs as "M.J. Anderson" (given name is "Matthew Jason Anderson") as well as his jersey number.
-Elvis Andrus. Peculiarity: Signs with a bunch of horizontal and vertical lines.
-Danys Baez. Peculiarity: Signs his last name, then his first initial and (sometimes) number.
-Eric Beattie. Peculiarity: Signs his name as "E. Beattie," replete with the period.
-Cool Papa Bell. Peculiarity (baseball cards only): Would correct any historical errors on the back of the card.
-Wally Bunker. Peculiarity: His signature is nothing more than a squiggle. Seriously. If you have one, look at it. Not one letter is even remotely decipherable.
-Lew Burdette. Peculiarity: Always signed his name as "Lou." ESPN's Rob Neyer noted this and has started calling him "Lou Burdette."
-Ambiorix Burgos. Peculiarity: He signs his name as "A. Burgos," replete with period, just like Eric Beattie.
-Fausto Carmona. Peculiarity: Usually signs his name "Fausto C."
-Luis Castillo. Peculiarity: See "Ambiorix Burgos." He too just writes in his first initial, replete with a period after it.
-Loyd Christopher. Peculiarity: See "Lew Burdette." Signed his name with one "L." What's so odd about that, you ask? His given name was "Lloyd." However, all his contracts and stuff were signed with just one "L," hence why he's called "Loyd Christopher."
-Sandy Consuegra. Peculiarity: Inscribed literally every flat item he signed with "Sincerely."
-Jimmie Crutchfield. Peculiarity: He signed everything "Col. Jimmie Crutchfield," correctly giving the military abbreviation of his nickname, "The Colonel." He'd also sometimes affix "Col." to his name on baseball cards.
-Johnny Cueto. Peculiarity: Signs as "Jonny Cueto." Early on, he merely signed as "Jonny."
-Leon Day. Pecularity: If asked to inscribe something aside from personalizations, he'd merely add "Negro Leagues."
-Jorge de la Rosa. Peculiarity: Signs his first name as "Jo." Take a look at anything you have signed by him.
-Don Demeter. Peculiarity: Okay, so this one is related to how his signature looks, but take a look at any autograph you have of him and compare the "D's" in "Don" and "Demeter" to the rest of his name and they're five or six times larger with the rest of the name written inside or under the D's.
-Rick Ferrell. Peculiarity: Underlined part or all of his signature.
-Wes Ferrell. Peculiarity: See "Rick Ferrell."
-Todd Frazier. Peculiarity: Signs either "Todd B. Frazier" or "T.B. Frazier."
-Yoandy Garlobo. Peculiarity: Signs his name as "YGR" in block print with his jersey number.
-Dwight Gooden. Peculiarity: Randomly alternates between "Dwight" and "Doc" as his first name.
-Lee Grissom. Peculiarity: Signed "Lefty Lee Grissom" with no quotes around "Lefty."
-C.J. Henry. Peculiarity: Signs his autograph as "CJH."
-Adrian Hernandez. Peculiarity: Generally signs just his nickname, "el Duquecito" or merely "Duquecito."
-Orlando Hernandez. Aside from "O. Hernandez #26" in the style that Omar Linares seemingly popularized, he adds "Duke." Not "Duque." "Duke."
-Brad Holt. Peculiarity: At least early on, he added "32nd Overall" to everything he signed.
-J.P. Howell. Peculiarity: Often merely signs his last name, "Howell."
-Skeeter Kell. Peculiarity: Signs out "Everett 'Skeeter' Kell."
-Bobby Keppel. Peculiarity: Signs his name "B. Keppel."
-Kevin Kouzmanoff. Peculiarity: Often merely signs his nickname, "Kouz." Sometimes he'll sign "K. Kouz."
-Pedro Luis Lazo. Peculiarity: As of late has dated his signatures.
-Bill Lee. Peculiarity: It varies. You'll always get "Earth, 2008" (or whenever he signed it), but sometimes you'll also get "Bill 'Spaceman' Lee," "Yankees Suck," "Red Sox Rule," or just random stuff that he happened to think up when you asked for a personalization. That's what makes him fun TTM.
-Allan Lewis. Peculiarity: Signed a little squiggle before his name. I can't for the life of me figure out why.
-Gene Lillard. Peculiarity: Calligraphy was Gene Lillard's hobby, and he'd go out of his way to make his signature look almost like John Hancock's on the Declaration of Independence.
-Omar Linares. Peculiarity: Not so much a peculiarity as a trend-setter. Linares would generally sign his first initial, his name, and then his number. Because of his tremendous popularity, a lot of Cuban ballplayers that grew up watching him copied this.
-Ad Liska. Peculiarity: On everything I've seen signed of him, he signs at least his full name, Adolph James Liska. Sometimes he'd add his career in short (list of teams he played with and in what years), too.
-Alexander Malleta. Peculiarity: Has two distinct signatures. Sometimes he'll print his name as "Alexander Malleta." However, when he signs his name as a signature, it's always as "A. Mayeta."
-Mike G. Marshall. Peculiarity: Without exception signs as "Dr. Mike Marshall."
-Amaury Marti. Peculiarity: Though his name has changed literally half a dozen times, his signature hasn't. It's still "Amaury Casaņas."
-Harold Martinez. Peculiarity: Often merely signs the letter "M."
-Verdell Mathis. Peculiarity: Signed his name "Verdell Lefty Mathis" with no quotes around "Lefty."
-Sam McDowell. Peculiarity: Signs his name "Sam Mc Dowell" with a space between "Mc" and "Dowell."
-Tug McGraw. Pecularity: On most of his card-certified autographs, he added a smiley face.
-Victor Mesa. Peculiarity: Signs "Cuba" or "Villa Clara" depending on what photo he's signing.
-Wonderful Terrific Monds. Peculiarity: Never signs his full name. Usually either "Wonderful Monds" or sometimes "Wonderful T. Monds."
-Toe Nash. Peculiarity: Signs "Greg 'Toe' Nash," despite the fact that I don't think anyone in baseball ever called him Greg (though it is his given name).
-Pat Neshek. Peculiarity: The baseball seams in the letter "P," which is really cool.
-Adrian Nieto. Peculiarity: Starts his signature off with a little star or asterisk or something. Your guess is as good as mine as to why.
-Rey Ordonez. Peculiarity: Similar to Danys Baez in that he writes his last name, then sticks his first initial at the end.
-Juan Padilla (the pitcher, not the Cuban second baseman). Peculiarity: Signs his name weird and flattened out. Easily in the running for "top three weirdest-looking signatures of all time" with Elvis Andrus and Wally Bunker.
-Ike Pearson. Peculiarity: Often signed in quill pen. I guess he liked either calligraphy or pens.
-Double Duty Radcliffe. Peculiarity: Perhaps as a reflection of his nickname, he often signed both the front and back of a baseball card.
-Ricardo Rincon. Peculiarity: Prints "Ricardo," (albeit with a fancy "R") then goes to cursive for "Rincon."
-Pete Rose, Jr. Peculiarity: Signs as "Pete Rose II."
-Earl Snyder. Peculiarity: The first and last letters of his first and last name are capitalized. Basically "EarL SnydeR."
-Oscar Tejeda. Peculiarity: Signs "Oscar" in cursive, then prints "Tejeda."
-Ludovicus Van Mil. Peculiarity: Signs as "Loek van Mil." "Loek" is his nickname.
-Chien-Ming Wang. Peculiarity: Alternates almost at random between signing in Chinese and English.
-Casey Weathers. Peculiarity: It could just be his handwriting, but I swear it looks like he's writing "Cy Weathers."
-Turk Wendell. Peculiarity: Can't speak to it now, but he added whatever team he was playing with at the time under his signature, no matter what the card or flat he signed portrayed him with. In other words, say you had a card of him with the Cubs while he was playing on the Mets; he'd add "Mets." He also sometimes signed both sides of the card in TTM requests.
I'd love to hear any additions!